Scary Day

Earlier today we had a big scare. As you know, John works the overnight so he was still sleeping at 11am and I had sort of dozed off as well. *sheepish grin* Anyway, his phone rang and we both about jumped out of our skins. It was the school. Sean had gotten hurt playing kickball. They had no more information as they were still out on the playground with him. Needless to say we rushed down the stairs, out to the car and over to the school. John realized he was doing 70 in a 40 and quickly slowed down. He was definitely not thinking with that one. When we got to the neighborhood we were watching as we drove down the street. No fire truck, that's a good thing. Then we came around the corner and there he was being pushed in a wheelchair by the nurse and accompanied by the principal. Needless to say that was SCARY. It is not a good feeling to see your child in a wheelchair when he isn't a wheelchair user. So we parked in the Employee of the Month spot which was the closest one and ran into the school. They were by his classroom at that point. His best friend was giving him a card and another boy was carrying his backpack--we left the violin there, oops. Between the nurse and Sean we gathered that he had gone to kick the ball and missed. It went under his foot and he went down backwards on the right side of his butt and rolled onto his right arm but did NOT hit his head. The nurse and principal came out to the car with us and helped us load him in. First time he ever rode in the front seat and he didn't even set up a squawk. Then we had to stop back by home because stupid me didn't bring my backpack so I didn't have my wallet with his medical card in it--I had my ID with me but not the medical card. So finally we were on our way to St. Joseph's.

John dropped us at the door and he got out and hobbled in leaning against me. We didn't even have to wait. They saw us coming in and ushered us right back to triage but then when John came in they wouldn't let him come in. They said only one parent in triage. Immediately after finishing triage they took us back to a room (well, curtained section #50 which is grandiosely referred to as a room) and John was able to come with us as well. The doctor was right in too. It was really rather surreal how quickly he got seen. I've been in much worse shape and waited hours. Found out later they had "fast-tracked" him. Don't know why. Anyway, the doctor asked him what had happened and was treated to the WHOLE story beginning with the canned food drive all the way up through the point where he got hurt. She manipulated his arm and wrist and it seemed fine, just a little bit sore. Then she asked him to take his pants down to his knees but he could leave his underwear on. He got a little embarrassed and I had to tell him, "Don't worry. We've seen you and she's seen thousands of 'em." LOL No pain in the spinal area at all, praise God, just soreness to the right side of his cheek. After she finished they came with the paperwork and then the nurse came with Motrin for him. We thought we were going to have an issue with that because it was the liquid stuff and Sean does NOT do liquid medicine. He made a face but took it like a man when he found out he was allowed to have a water chaser to get the nasty taste out of his mouth. Then the doctor came back about 10 minutes or so later to make sure he was still okay and she was going to release him. However, his wrist decided to hurt really badly at that point and he told her so she ordered an x-ray. We thought we were in for a long wait then because we had heard them talking that x-ray and CT were backed up--we've spent a lot of time in hospitals over the years so we've learned what to listen for. That's when we found out that he had been fast-tracked because they called it over the intercom or whatever it's called. He went back to x-ray and John went with him. They came back and said it looked good. Apparently it was some sort of digital x-ray so they didn't have to wait for it like we're used to. After he got back the nurse gave him a sling and then we just had to wait until the doctor came back to check him and release him. Then we had to wait in the hallway and flag somebody down since we couldn't get out the door and there was nobody in the discharge room. All in all we were there just a little over two hours which is a new ER record, I think. On the way home we asked him which team won the kickball game and he said, "I'm not really sure. It came to a rather abrupt end." LOL

He's doing fine now. His back (butt really) is a bit sore but I can't give him more Motrin until around 6pm and that's a little over a half hour from now. His arm hurts when he tries to do stuff with it but he's got the sling on it and he's already figured out how to use the mouse left-handed so it's all good.

John is the one I'm concerned about at this point. He didn't get home from work until after 5am, slept until 7:30, spent a half hour with Sean while he was getting ready for school (standard morning procedure), went back to sleep when we left and then got woken up by the phone. When we got home after we ate he tried to doze for a little bit but wasn't really successful. So he's now at work overnight on only a few hours sleep. This is a concern because he drives over 200 miles every night.

Sean will be staying home from school tomorrow. We were going to be pulling him out at lunchtime anyway since he already had a doctor's appointment scheduled regarding his nosebleeds. This is perfect actually because we'll be able to follow up on what happened today as well.

That's the excitement in our corner of the world. So much for the calmness I reported the other day. *grin* I hope everybody has had a good week and will have a good weekend.

Interesting Day

Today was a GOOD day in our house, especially considering the way some of our days have been going lately. Yesterday was a nightmare but today was good. It was report card day. That has never been a bad day but this one was very good. He got four 4s: Listening and Speaking, Collaborative Worker, Responsible Citizen and Quality Producer. I'm especially proud of the Listening and Speaking. Part of the grade for the speaking portion is being able to be 100% understood when making a speech and not making any pronunciation errors. That is quite a feat for someone who almost always needed a translator when he started school unless the person he was talking to knew him and was familiar with his speech. He has a bit different accent than most people from Arizona but that doesn't matter. Mom was worried when he took the decision to discontinue speech this year as he figured that "this is as good as it's going to get." Guess my worries were unfounded since his teacher didn't even realize until I told her about a week into school that we needed to schedule an IEP meeting to close it out. She thought he just had an accent she wasn't familiar with.

On the other hand, it was a VERY bad day for our neighbor and an interesting evening of question answering for me. Long story short: Ms. Neighbor has been cheating on Mr. Neighbor and she decided to leave him and go with Mr. Other Man. Mr. Neighbor came home from work and found stuff lined up to head out the door and all h*** broke loose. Sean was hot and opened the door right when it was erupting. A little while later I started to step outside to indulge in my bad habit and Mr. Neighbor was talking to Mr. Policeman. So I turned and went right back inside. About an hour later I decided to venture out again and heard the whole issue of what was going on. We had heard some of it in the house but I heard more than I wanted to outside. I stayed on the far end of the balcony by our house with my back to it. One of the men helping her move said to me, "And people wonder why I'm single." I'm not 100% sure if that was an attempt at conversation or an attempt to pick me up. Either way it wasn't happening. I just glanced at him and said, "I just came out for a cigarette" and went and stood in the corner with a pointed look at him that said, "You're on my side of the balcony. You can return to the other side." So then, of course when I came in I had an 11-year old full of questions about what does it mean to cheat on somebody and why does Mr. Neighbor sound like he's crying? So we had a nice little discussion about fidelity and trust and what it means to commit to a person. I didn't think we'd be having this discussion quite yet but I guess that's one of the things about communal living.

Hope things are going well in everyone's corner of the world. Ours is calm and peaceful for this minute and I, for one, am glad of that.

Such A Nice Weekend

After my last post I have to write and say that we are having a lovely weekend so far.

Friday Sean was out of school for grading day. He actually let his father sleep without interruption which was very nice since John didn't get home from work until after 5am. When he got up they went to Jack-in-the-Box for lunch and then went to see The Green Hornet. I stayed home and relaxed and listened to the sounds of the landscapers outside. When they got home we had a nice calm evening as well.

Today was absolutely wonderful. John and I got to sleep until after 11am which was very nice since we didn't get to bed until about 2:30am. I did wake up to make breakfast for the boy but then he let us both sleep. We went to In-n-Out for lunch which was quite a splurge but sometimes you've just gotta say "What the heck" and do it. LOL After that we went to Wal-Mart as we needed a new lamp since Sean's went out after the last time we lost power and we gave him the one from the living room. My lamp also went out at the same time but I had another one. I haven't been able to use it though since we didn't have a proper bulb for it. We were extremely lucky to be able to get a lamp for $12.97. It's a combination lamp. It has a torchiere top and then has an adjustable reading lamp on the side. It's great because the lamp location is next to the table where John does his recording. With the reading lamp he can adjust it directly to where he needs it. So our living room is once again flooded with light instead of being dim like it has been. After we got home we were sitting out on the balcony and John remembered that tonight was the "supermoon" so we decided to head out east to watch it rise over the Rincons. It wasn't very super but it was pretty. On the way back we decided to stop and get pizza at Domino's since they have a deal going on right now. Then I saw a Mama's Pizza that we didn't know about. John turned around to go there and it was touch and go whether there was going to be a fight in the car or not. When we left the house I was going to run back in and put my jeans and shoes on but they wanted to leave right away--mind you, it takes me all of three minutes to do that. Anyway, I went in what I had on which was the ratty old pair of faded shorts I wear around the house when it's hot and a pair of mules that have seen better days since I accidentally wore them to the pool and they got wet. I just wear them to go out on the balcony, do laundry, check mail, but never in the public view. In other words, I looked like crap and these two are telling me don't worry about it. I said NAY-NAY. We had Domino's. *grin* Then we built the lamp and just basically had a great evening at home. Sean built a Lego vehicle from the Ninjago line and I "helped" him. All I did was sit there and hand him pieces and helped him with one attachment that he wasn't seeing. Very different from several years ago when "help" meant that mom built while he sat there asking if it was done yet.

Now for the icing on the cake. It cooled down tonight and we've been home with the door and all the windows open so it is less than 80 degrees in the house for the first time in over a week. I may actually turn back into a normal human being. :)

So things are looking up in our corner of the world. I hope everybody else is having a nice weekend as well.

Just Rambling.....

Those of you who know me know that sometimes I just need to ramble.......of course, you might also argue that that is all I do when I get a computer keyboard under my fingers. Either way, tonight I need to ramble because it's just been one of those weeks so this will probably be a novel.

It started last Friday when Sean came home from school after having a sub. She was incredibly rude to him. He had to go to the restroom very badly in the middle of an exam--I know what you're thinking, since when are kids allowed to go to the restroom during an exam. Well, she didn't say for them to go ahead of time and he HAD to go. Trust me, when my son needs to go, he NEEDS to go like right NOW. When he asked her she said out loud for the whole class to hear, "You just want to get out of taking the exam." He told her that he didn't and that he knew the book backward and forward and she could ask him any question and he would get it right but that he HAD to go to the restroom. She finally let him go but he felt totally humiliated. Later she was also rude to his best friend when he asked permission to refill his water bottle. During the afternoon she said to the whole class, "They were right. This is the worst class ever." Needless to say, on Monday when John retrieved Sean from school he spoke to Teacher about it and she was less than pleased. The class as a whole IS badly behaved and is the worst that school has ever seen but there are some good kids in there and Sean and Lawrence are two of them. They're not only polite and well-behaved but they're good students as well. She told my husband that she would tell the office that she doesn't want that woman in her classroom ever again. She was extremely upset that Sean was treated that way as she really likes him--and he likes her too.

Second thing is John's work. It's totally crazy, as if it wasn't crazy enough with the new shift. His boss quit last week so now they have no supervisor, just FSMs who don't quite get it. Then last night and tonight when he went in there was no vehicle for him. A truck on one of the sites broke down so they took the Patrol 1 truck for it. How is a patrol driver supposed to do his run without a vehicle? He has to wait until one is brought over to him 45 minutes into his shift and then he has to deliver the FSM back to the office. Big deal? Yes. This patrol is run and gun at the best of times just to try to fit all the hits in, especially on the 11-hour shifts. He didn't get home until almost an hour later than he usually does on Wednesday-into-Thursday and it will be no different tonight. Granted, he'll be getting overtime but still that doesn't make up for having to race to try to play catch up and make sure he makes the time-sensitive hits on time. And to add insult to injury he's stuck in a Prius. I don't know about you but driving 200 miles a night in a Prius is not my idea of a fun time. Nothing personal to anybody who happens to own one but they are funky vehicles.

It is so hot in our house it isn't even funny. I haven't been sleeping well due to the heat. I sleep maybe an hour or an hour and a half and then wake up sweltering and can't get back to sleep for about the same amount of time. It is about 85 degrees in our house as I write this at 12:40am and that is how hot it was at 3am yesterday morning as well. Today I went off on the maintenance guy when he said we aren't going to have air until sometime next week. I am not normally like that but I sort of let him have it. John kind of softened the blow a little bit but I was not a happy camper and he knew it.

And last, but not least, Sean and his nosebleeds--we have been informed by him that Miss Michelle said they are called nosebleeds not bloody noses. LOL The heat and lack of humidity in the house have really set them off. He had one tonight that lasted about 20 minutes. He had one Tuesday that lasted just a few minutes. He had one at school last week that lasted about 25 minutes or so. This is just getting ridiculous. John called the doctor over a week ago and they never returned his call. He's calling again on Monday. This has got to be stopped. Years ago the doctor told us that if they continue he might have to get it cauterized and it looks like the time has come. This has been going on for probably 8 years. It is worse at certain times of the year and this is the worst time for it. Luckily Sean is handling it much better than he used to. He used to turn into a raving lunatic but now he just takes it in his stride and does what is necessary. He pretty much can handle it himself but when it goes longer like tonight he calls me or John in to "help" but really all we do is offer moral support and then help him clean himself and the sink up.

Okay, I think I'm done complaining for now. Sorry about this but I don't do this too often. :)

Hope things are going well in your corner of the world.

Pon Farr?

I've been terrible about writing on here. Well, I sort of manage to write about once a week. :)

This past week was interesting. Sean has been back to his old ways of throwing a fit in the morning and refusing to stop. He's also been doing it some at other times of the day but mostly in the morning. On Thursday it was VERY bad. It seemed fairly obvious that it had to do with school and he finally said it did with no prompting from us. So we spoke with his teacher after school on Thursday afternoon. He had solved part of it himself during the day by asking to be moved to a different group. All seemed well for several days. Then today he started again. Sunday--school tomorrow, here we go again. Testing the waters to see if he will be successful trying to stay home, which got nipped in the bud. Throwing a fit and being rude about things that have nothing whatsoever to do with school. This is getting ridiculous. I realize he's only 11 but I'm starting to think he's going through pon farr. This too shall pass--maybe when he's 25 or so. Meanwhile, Mom is losing her mind. *grin*

Not much else going on in our corner of the world. I hope everybody else had a good weekend and will have a great week to come.

Relaxing

I'm sitting here enjoying a nice, quiet evening with my guys. John's on the computer doing some recording, which he loves doing. Sean's sprawled out on the floor chattering away to his dad about his Bakugan, which he loves doing. I'm sitting here listening to music in my headphones and hearing them through it, which I love doing. So it's a win-win-win. Of course, at this hour Sean should be in bed long since but as it's 80 degrees in the house with all the windows and the door open and the fan running in his room that obviously isn't happening any time soon.

One of the things John is doing is putting all of my music onto a flashdrive for me so I can listen to it while I'm on the computer. They always tease me about my "drunken Irish music" but I have a lot of other music on there. I usually listen to music on YouTube while I'm on the computer. I am finding lately that my musical tastes have changed. I still like the old music I used to listen to but not as much. Lately I find that I am enjoying listening to music in other languages. I think part of the reason is that I can't understand it so my brain can just enjoy the sound of the music. I look up the lyrics for an English translation to make sure I'm not listening to something I wouldn't like if it were in English but then after that I don't worry about it. I also find that I am enjoying a lot of the modern Christian music. It is also very relaxing to listen to.

Lately ways to relax have become very important to me as Sean has been quite a handful lately. I think I need to take a leaf from the book of a lady whose blog I follow and go back to starting my day by reading my Bible. I used to do that and it set a nice tone for my day but I've gotten away from it for various reasons. I think I'm going to start doing it again this week and see if I can keep up with it this time. My problem is that I'm one of those people who winds up stopping when I miss a few days here and there rather than just not worrying about it and keeping going. This time I'm going to try not to let that happen.

That's about it from our corner of the world. Hope all is going well with everyone and that the week to come is full of blessings for all of you.